Rich, I was drawn to look at your other work on tinywords after reading your 'lighter leaves' haiku. The internal links in this haiku remind me of stanza links in a renga.

The two sounds are both 'naughty' for their agents: radiator shouldn't hiss, cat shouldn't be on piano. That sets up a nice tension, while the hissing of the radiator foreshadows the cat. The piano keys find their reflex in the vertical sections of the radiator.

This is a haiku in a haiku. I can see how the cat, jarred by the sound of the piano, stops with its senses sharpened and takes the whole moment in. Perhaps your cat wrote this haiku?

Richard Magahiz

2003-04-09 19:31:39

Hello,

When he accepted it, Dylan wrote me that he liked the poem because it was both funny and onomatopoetic.

And no, I've never owned a cat of my own. Though I do have firsthand knowledge about radiators.

(The "leaves" poem is at this address in case anyone looking in here is wondering.)